PRISM for PERCUSSION QUARTET AND ELECTRONICS

PROGRAM NOTES

The initial inspiration for this piece was the concept of a triangular prism refracting white light into a color spectrum. My imagining of this phenomenon focused on the contrast of the two sides of the experiment. The narrow, unified focus of the white light and the wide, colorful spread on the other end. As such, this piece alternates between two parts. A rhythmically clear, through-composed section and a floating, often-improvised section. Musically, the piece draws heavily on the pattern 4-3-4-5-3-5. I selected this pattern because the close oscillation of the numbers seems to imitate the slow spread of the colored lights from a prism. This pattern is punctuated in the rhythm that opens the piece and appears throughout the work in various transformations.

Composition Details

Completed in 2014 and premiered on June 1st, 2014 by the John Holback, Drew Johnson, Jordan McCree, Andrew Nittoli, and Charles Peck at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. The piece was created with support from the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Composers Forum.